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Neither Presentism nor Eternalism

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arxiv 1910.02474 v2 pith:YVFHG5AO submitted 2019-10-06 physics.hist-ph gr-qc

Neither Presentism nor Eternalism

Carlo Rovelli This is my paper
classification physics.hist-ph gr-qc
keywords becomingrealityeternalismoptionspresentismrealapproximationsargue
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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Is reality three-dimensional and becoming real (Presentism), or is reality four-dimensional and becoming illusory (Eternalism)? Both options raise difficulties. I argue that we do not need to be trapped by this dilemma. There is a third possibility: reality has a more complex temporal structure than either of these two naive options. Fundamental becoming is real, but local and unoriented. A notion of present is well defined, but only locally and in the context of approximations.

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Cited by 1 Pith paper

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Multidimensional arrow of time

    gr-qc 2026-01 reject novelty 4.0

    The direction of time is claimed to be fixed by the exponentially growing entropy of expanding extra dimensions, which dominates every other entropy source in the universe.